Far West

SAN FRANCISCO - California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a new law giving San Francisco special exemptions to form a tax district on its waterfront to help reimburse the city for the America's Cup and pay for other projects.

The municipal bond market is fragmented and lacks an overarching theme as it enters the final quarter of 2011.

Securities and Exchange Commission staff are pressing forward with a final municipal advisor registration scheme and a report that will recommend improvements in disclosure and other areas of the muni market, commissioner Elisse Walter said Tuesday.

RBC Capital Markets LLC will pay $30.4 million to settle charges filed Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing the firm of misconduct for its role in the sale of unsuitably risky investment products to five Wisconsin school districts.

The fiscal condition of cities is continuing to weaken in 2011 and isn't likely to improve in 2012, the National League of Cities concluded in a report released Tuesday.

While state cutbacks to education funding in California have stressed the Los Angeles Unified School District's operating budget, resulting in the layoff of 1,900 teachers, they have not hampered its building program.

NEW YORK - The Internal Revenue Service is planning to begin full-blown audits of advance refunding bonds and focused audits of tax and revenue anticipation notes and multifamily housing bonds, an IRS official said at a seminar here Monday.

SAN FRANCISCO - Vallejo, Calif., hasn't quite wiggled out of bankruptcy, nearly two months after getting a judge's approval for its exit plan.

House Transportation Committee chairman Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., has been given the go-ahead by leadership to include $15 billion more for transportation programs in his multi-year bill, if he can find the revenue, sources said.

With support from the president, members of both parties in both houses of Congress, think tanks and financial institutions, creation of a national infrastructure bank might seem like a slam dunk.